Around the world travel

I intend to partake in an epic adventure spanning 6 months and thousands of kilometers with any of my best mates who can afford it too, my beginning question for all this how much money will I need to save for it to happen?

It won't be occuring till ideally June 2015.

Disregarding fluctuations in economy/dollar value, travel gear etc, for me to visit approximately 20 countries in 6 months following a route somewhat;

In SE Asia you can easily get by on $20-30 per day for accommodation and food.

Scraping the bottom of the barrel, you're looking at closer to $50-60 per day for food and lodging in the UK, Europe, Canada, the US and Japan.

Turkey, Croatia and Fiji will do you about $40 a day.

All in, I think I blew through $30-35k in 9 months on the road. I was travelling cheap, but I still wanted to enjoy myself. I could have gone cheaper if I had to.

Your big expenses will come from your transport and the activities that you do along the way. You'll find yourself weighing things up in terms of days. Things like "I could do this trek, or I could use that money to spend 3 more days on a beach in Thailand." It just comes down to what your priorities are.

Tips- use overnight buses, trains and planes wherever possible - it will save you a night's accommodation- eat where the locals eat, it's cheaper and tastier- if you're in one place for a couple of days go to the supermarket instead of eating out- if you're in one place for more than a couple of days, ask for a weekly rate on the room, especially in Europe- get a student card - it's more useful in some places than others, but discounts are discounts

As Tales said, your costs depend on where you go. You could spend 6 months in Southeast Asia, China and India and spend only $1,000/month. In Europe or North America, that would last you a week, if you were economical. Frankly, if I were you, I'd focus on one continent/region. You'd save a lot of money on flights, and there's still plenty to see in 6 months on any continent.

20 countries in 6 months is pretty optimistic... If you work it out it's just over a week in each country. You've gotta take into considering travel times (and costs) travelling across each country and of you want to get a feel for the country you won't be able to do that in a week. The slower the travel also the cheaper it will be for you, therefore the longer you can spend travelling.

Your better off just covering one region or of you want to do more then just choosing 3/4 countries per region.

It does look like you are going for passport stamps. You could easily spend a month and more in some of those countries and still miss out so much.

If you can afford that many countries (travel is expensive, especially getting around the Caribbean), you'll need a six month rest when you get back home.

Based on time alone, I would drop Turkey, Greece, Croatia, Finalnd/Sweden, Canada, Carribean, Alaska, Japan, Fiji.

There are many online budget airlines about which could save you days on trains and buses.

Do check on weather as you do not want to arrive in the monsoon season or when there is several feet of snow about. Much of southern Europe is OK in the winter months when it can be very bad in northern Europe.

Note: A fair number of Australians travel to Thailand and other parts of Asia (also Fiji) so you could always do that as a separate trip which will give you more time for Europe, America, etc in 2015.